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Excellent product, couldn't live without it now with 2 young children

I decided to get this food and bottle warmer, along with all the other products from the Avent range. At first it was useful, especially as it meant that I didn't need to go downstairs boil the kettle at 4 in the morning and then wait for the bottle to warm up. All you need to do is just out the bottle in,mselect whether to bottle is frozen, refrigerated or room temperature and then how many ounces are in the bottle and then off it goes! Granted, it isn't the quietest thing in the world but thankfully doesn't take too long. It takes less than 2 minutes to warm up a refrigerated 5 ounce feed and as you can have it plugged in either next to the bed or in the nursery so then you don't need to disturb baby as much by taking them downstairs whilst you warm a bottle, or leaving them crying in their cot until you manage to come back upstairs with a nice warm bottle of milk in the middle of the night.

I am now using this bottle warmer for my second daughter, so when she first starts to make noises, I get the bottle straight in the bottle warmer and then by the time it's ready, she's just starting to wake so there isn't any point where she starts screaming. So no chance of having a newborn AND a toddler awake at the early hours.

The warmer gives so many options. You can warm bottles of milk and also jars of food, you select whether it is frozen, chilled or at room temperature and the quantity from either 1 ounce right up to 11 ounces. I found this so useful, that I got one for a friend as a baby gift and she shares the same opinions as me. It was definitely worth every penny and means you don't have to boil the kettle, or put the bottle in the microwave and then have the problem of the bottle being too hot or having to keep putting it in for another 5 seconds and checking time after time. The Avent Food & Bottle warmer is programmed to know just how long to warm for so there isn't a problem of whether the milk is too hot or too cold. I can't fault it!!!

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A useful but not vital piece of baby quietening equipment

vWhen you have a new baby you want to be prepared. Even though you know babies have been coming since primeval times and they certainly didn't need a Fisher Price jungle playgym for the baby to develop, sometimes you want to give yourself every advantage in helping your newborn in life.

What is the Avent Bottle Warmer?The Avent Bottle Warmer is one such luxury which really isn't necessary but is definitely useful, rather than having to boil water, you simply measure out how much milk or food needs heating and push some buttons and the warmer heats your bottles by boiling the water to ensure that the milk is heated to the right temperature for your baby.

Where Did I buy it, how much did it cost?

Firstly, I would say that we bought our Avent Bottle warmer about 8 months ago and soon afterwards they stopped selling them on Amazon, we paid £35.99 at the time and it would appear that a newer model has subsequently been released, but its reviews on Amazon aren't as good for this product.

What does it look like?Basically this is about 30cm tall, about 18cm wide and weighs about 300grams. It is pretty simple looking with a pure white sheen and the Avent symbol on the front and an opaque blue lid, there are a couple of push buttons on the front with small Led lights, which aren't the same as the picture in related to this review, these are all you need to warm the bottles (We use Avent bottles, but you can use other brands just check before using them).

How to use the Avent Food Warmer

So you get a bottle of milk out of your fridge, your freezer or from room temperature. You have to put in water depending on the size of container being used, whether this is an avent bottle or food container, then you push buttons to display if it is frozen, chilled or at room temperature, and then press a further button to choose the amount of milk in the bottle. Hold down the start button and the bottle warmer begins heating the water and the bottle.

Generally for a normal sized bottle warming takes about 2 minutes and is pretty convenient when you have a screaming baby desperate for food, although you can't hold a baby and measure the water, or take the heated bottle from the warmer, as the bottle is boiling hot as is the water and you could risk burning yourself or baby.

Is it worth the money

So far, I have found this to be useful and convenient, although you do have to put baby down for a few minutes to set the warmer up and to remove the bottle afterwards, I have also burnt myself on a couple of occasions pouring the boiling water into the sink after use, this is because you have to hold the warmer and the lead when you move it, thus making tipping it awkward, add to it the oblong nature of the warmers lid and the water doesn't pour out naturally so, if like me you hold onto the lid to get some leverage you are liable to burn your hands.

Overall I would say you can easily get by without one of these, it is a luxury which helps but isn't vital to feeding your baby, it takes a few goes to remember how to use it, however the instructions provided are very clear and simple, I have occasionally found the product annoying on night feeds as baby cries and you have to leave them to set things up, but for the time it saves, overall it is a really good product which I think will be worth the money paid for it in no time at all.

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If you want to use a warmer a good overall product

My husband bought this bottle warmer in a rush when we decided breast feeding was not for me. We had got tommee tippee bottles from my mum when she bought the steriliser but anyway the bottles fitted in the avent warmer no problem. It has a guide on the warmer to say how long to heat up the bottle for depending upon what you are heating up e.g milk in a bottle and how much or a jar. The warmer heated up quite quickly and the mikl heated up in the guide time. The warmer does not have an on/off switch or automatic turn off so you have to remember to turn it off at the wall. Although this is a good product we stopped using it after a few weeks because in the middle of the night it seemed to take ages to heat up when the baby was crying and because we had to go to the kitchen to get bottle out of fridge we started to use the microwave instead becase it was alot quicker. It is not recomended that you use a microwave though!

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I just dont get the real benefits from this product

I was given one of these and to be honest forgot I had it, when our son came along and we had to bottle feed it was automatic to put the bottle in a jug of hot water, a few weeks in when I remembered the bottle warmer I got it out the box to investigate and was fairly disappointed. I dont really know what I had imagined but I wasnt impressed by the method, add water, put the bottle in and wait 5 minutes, ok so it does the job but in my opinion seems like a complete waste of money, every house hold has a kettle afterall and can easily heat a bottle the traditional way. Needless to say I didnt use the product as we were in our routine. however when out and about I have used the product, and after initial thoughts was confirmed that it was quite a pointless idea, I was always stuck waiting ages for a bottle to heat.

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An unnecessary piece of baby equipment.

I was given one of these when i had my baby but have only used it twice! Personally i think they are a waste of money that could be better spent on other things and a 60p Jug or dare i say it a microwave can do the job just as well. When my babies were little i used a jug with boiling water to stand bottles in which is actually quicker than the bottle warmer. As my babies got older i did use the microwave, i only used it to get the chill off and shook well and have never had any problems with it.

For night feeds i would take up to bed with me a flask of boiling water and a jug and use this to warm up the bottles. I would do the same when going out , would be difficult to use the bottle warmer when out and about.

For some this may be a useful buy but personally i found it to be a waste of money and an unused item.

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cheap item which is handy to have around the house

I bought this baby warmer for a small cost of £14.99 which was good value for money in my opinion it is convenient to use when you are getting up for night feeds as you can have it plugged in in your bedroom. apart from night feeds i didnt find much use for it.During the day i make the bottles up as i go along if i can.if not i find it is much quicker to heat the bottle up in a jug with hot water.it is not really an essential item but was very useful during the night. however if your baby starts sleeping through early like mine did it is only used for a short time. for the cost of it it is well worth having as it is convenient and is made by a reputable company. heats bottle up within five minutes so is a handy item to have around the house. its not the most reliable item in my opinion sometimes in which i have used it it has took a lot longer than it is supposed to.

It works quite similar to a kettle. you put water in the bottle warmer, put your bottle in and the bottle warmer heats up the water which then goes on to heat up your bottle.it is very easy to use.

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this bottle warmer is fantastic value for money, we make are as needed by leaving water in a bottle then just add the formula as required, no nessing around with kettles and jugs, on my second child now still works great, would deff recomend it to to any new parents its a lifesaver especially doing night feeds,you can buy them in most supermarkets fairly cheap or you get one off ebay pretty cheap to.

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You dont have to get out of bed

If anyone ever asks me what the one thing is that they should buy for when their baby arrives my advice to them is to buy an Avent Warmer, it has been a lifesaver for me. I was told about hotspots that can occur if using a microwave and me being a first time mum didn't want this to occur so i invested in a Avent Warmer from Asda for £9.99, i only got it this cheap as it was on offer at the time although i did go out and buy another at full price for £15.00 so i could have one in the bedroom. I didn't have An Avent Warmer at first and was having to get up in the middle of the night so i could warm my daughters bottles up which was doing my head in, when i had finally had enough i found the Avent Warmer it takes no more than 3 minutes to warm up a bottle and i don't even have to get out of bed anymore.I have had mine for 9 months now and have had no problems what so ever with them, you can not only warm bottles up but baby food as well which is also great, it will only take Avent 4oz and 9oz bottles and the Avent Magic Cup. It is very easy to clean you just add sterilising fluid and leave on full heat for half an hour then rinse i usually clean it once a week, to use the Avent Warmer just fill with water to the required level and select your setting. It usually takes around four minutes to warm food and two or three minutes for a bottle it does state in the instructions that these times are based on bottled of milk at room temperature.

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waste of money

Now I realise Im probably going to get slated for using a microwave to heat my bottles but Iv never bought what people say about the microwave giving the milk hotspots, its a liquid for heavens sake just give it a good shake and make sure you test it first. If, like me your baby breaks into a yell without any apparent build up and you need to feed them fast, just dont bother with this bottle warmer, it feels like it takes forever especially in the middle of the night where you dont want to risk waking up the children through you baby screaming that he/she needs milk immediately!. Better still, get your baby used to taking milk at room temperature, think about it, if your out and about you cant carry round your bottle warmer and flask is both heavy and bulky. To me this is just another gimmick and its not worth investing your £29.99 in.

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Easy to use and good value for money

Having had a baby 8 weeks ago and not being able to breastfeed I decided to invest in a food and bottle warmer around 3 weeks ago as I was getting fed up of having to boil the kettle in the middle of the night to warm up his bottles!

The warmer comes with a 4oz bottle and lid and a weaning spoon.

I found Tesco to be the cheapest place to buy it from at £15 which I did not mind paying as it will also be used for warming food when we get to that stage!

The warmer is very fast and easy to use. All you have to do is put in the bottle, add water, turn to the correct setting (1, 2 or 3) and switch on.

The warmer fits all Avent bottles, magic cups and food jars. I also have a couple of 9oz Boots own brand bottles which also fit perfectly.

The 4oz bottles heat in around 4 minutes however the 9 oz bottles take around 7 minutes.

The warmer needs descaling every 4 weeks with either citric acid or vinegar. Again this is very simple to do and the instructions that come with the bottle warmer provide all the relevant instructions on how to do this.

Overall a great, easy to use product - I think it could only be improved if it included a built in timer.

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Been a good buy for us.

When we switched from breast to bottle we decided that one of these would be a good investment. We actually bought ours second hand from ebay for around £8 and opposed to £15 in Tesco. Even without instructions we have figured out how to use it and it is very straight forward.

All you need to do is put some water in the bottom, pop the bottle in (make sure the bottle is in the water but so that the water doesn't all spill out when you put the bottle in!) plug it in and set the dial to 1 (slow heat), 2 (medium heat) or 3 (express heat). We use the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles and these fit in fine - a 5oz bottle takes about 4-5 mins to warm on 3, or about 15 mins on 1. I often use the 1 setting if I am doing bedtime on my own as I can put the bottle on 1 and then do my daughters bath and the bottle is just nocely warm by the time we are ready for it after her bath.

It is also easy to take upstairs to do night feeds as well.

Two drawbacks are that you have to switch it off at the plug to switch it off and it looses a lot of water through the day from evaporation (not sure if there is anything Avent could do about this though!) but and off switch would be good.

I presume the person that we bought this off got plenty of use out of it and we have been using it for at around 6 bottles a day for 8 weeks with no problems so they seem to last well.

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Warm 10fl oz of milk in 6 minutes.

When we brought our daughter home from hospital, after she was born, she became very lazy and stopped sucking on the breast, this then lead me down the route of expressing milk as a way to make sure she got some food and we stopped panicking at the thought of her starving to death. I did normally try to express before she would want feeding but sometimes this was impossible and I would have to use already expressed milk out of the fridge. This would need to be warmed up by placing the bottle in a jug of boiled water. I started to get a bit feed up with waiting for the kettle to boil and then for the milk to warm, so I decided that I needed a bottle warmer. I had seen them in my local Tesco so set off to buy one. Over two years later and I am still using it.

A Bit about Avent.

Avent was launched in 1984 and redesigned the baby bottle to closely resemble the natural feeding process and gave mothers the freedom to combine breast and bottle feeding, whether the bottles were used for expressed milk or formular milk. 90% of their products are designed and made in their factory in Suffolk, England and is certified to ISO 9001. In 2006 Avent joined the Philips group to become Philips Avent.

Avent make products to help mothers through pregnancy and beyond up to when your baby is about 18 months old.

They make skincare products for expectant mums and a skincare range for babies. Their breastfeeding range contains pumps (hand and electric), breast milk storage containers, nipple cream, breast pads, breast shells and nipple protectors. Three sizes of bottles, the smaller one holds 125ml/4 oz and the medium one holds 260ml/9 oz and the large "magnum" that holds 330ml/10.5 oz. Teats that reduce the risk of colic. Formular milk dispensers, bottle and teat brushes. Sterilizers and a bottle and food warmer. Daytime and nightime dummies, sorry, soothers up to the age of 18 months. Cups and spoons for weaning and different types of bags suitable for carrying everything.

Avent products are used in more than 60 countries around the world.

The Product.

The unit is made of white plastic 14cm tall x 10cm x 12 cm oval circle. It has a light blue plastic insert to hold your bottle in place. This can be removed but I am not sure why as I have never had any need to remove this. On the front of the warmer there is a silver dial that can be set at either setting 1, 2 or 3 depending how warm you want your milk and when you switch the warmer on, an orangey/red light flashes on and off when the warmer is in use. It was a white cable coming out at the back of the warmer, this is 90cm long and part of it can be stored under the bottom of the warmer if you don't need it that long. The warmer is supplied with a small measuring cup enabling you to pour the water in. It is also supplied with a couple of citric acid de-scaling sachets.

Using the product.

The warmer is suitable for warming bottles of milk and pots of liquidised food when your baby starts to wean. It takes all 3 sizes of Avent Bottles. Place your bottle or pot into the warmer top the unit up with water, set the switch to whatever setting you want and switch on at the plug. I have always left mine on the highest setting.

Large bottles either 6 minutes to the cooler temperature or 10 minutes to the higher temperature.

Liquidised food either 7 minutes or 12 minutes.

I would not recommend putting the glass jar in the warmer. I used to transfer some food into the Avent Storage pots and place these in the warmer any unheated food thats left in the jar could then go back into the fridge.

De-Scaling

It recommends to de-scale the unit every 2 - 4 weeks to ensure maximum efficiency. Mix sachet contents into 200ml/7 fl oz of water then pour into the unit. Heat on highest setting for 10 minutes. Switch off and leave the contents in the warmer for 30 minutes, drain the rinse out. You only get about 3 sachets of de-scaler and I have never managed to find any to buy anywhere so I have used a little Bicarbonate of soda a few times and its never done my unit any harm.

My opinion

I have used my bottle warmer for over two years now. When my daughter was on milk all the time it got used up to 6 times a day. When she went onto solids I would put some solid food into a plastic storage cup and would warm this through. Even today my daughter likes to have milk in the morning and a bed time. I use a bottle to warm the milk up (I place the bottle in the bottle warmer for 6 minutes to get it to about room temperature) then pour it into a cup. My daughter also likes to have her melon at room temperature. If she is on a non eating day, I can guarantee she will always have some melon and grapes but not if they are straight out of the fridge, so I pop the fruit into a plastic pot and warm them up very slightly in the bottle warmer and she then eats it. The only thing my daughter does it straight out of the fridge is yogart.

I have also noticed when going to some cafes, restaurants and baby changing facilities, they have these bottle warmers about as they are very quick and easy to use.

When I purchased mine a couple of years ago, my husband said it was a waste of money but when he got up during the night to feed our daughter he realised it was much quicker.

One thing that is missing from the unit is a timer. Luckily I have a digital clock on my cooker so I can just set this. I can't see that adding a timer would cost that much money and it would make it more convenient to use.

All in all I have certainly had my moneys worth out of this buy. A lot of baby stuff ends up useless after about one year but as I say I am still using it over two years later.

Price and availability

I can't remember how much I paid for mine but they are available in Tesco and Tesco online for £14.99 (it does not state that they are on offer so this is quite cheap), £29.99 in Boots, Mothercare and Argos.

More reading can be found at www.avent.philips.com or www.aventbabyshop.com.

This review may be found on other review sites.

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Nothing special but does the job, in its own time!

Not great value for money really. I was given mine, and frankly i'm glad I didn't pay for it. My kettle boils quicker and a jug holds more water to heat the bottle quicker. Having said that, I am too lazy to get a jug out to put the bottle in, and you don't have to re-fill the bottle warmer everytime like you would the kettle.

Nothing special or miraculous, but I guess it treats the milk in the way its supposed to be treated. The only other more convenient way to heat a bottle is in the microwave, and you aren't supposed to do that, so this is probably the best type of contraption on the market.

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Bit of a waste of money.

Well... When I was pregnant and still living at home with my mum, she raved on about bottle warmers how much hassle they saved in the middle of the night, how quick they were etc...i'm not convinced, my daughter is now 18months and the bottle warmer looks like new. Priced at £19:99 and purchased from boots.We used it for the first week for the novelty value and after that just gave up. We chose the Avent one because we had bought all the other feeding equipment in the Avent range. All of which was great. But the bottle warmer..I just wouldnt bother in hindsight...yes it saves boiling the kettle, yes it times the bottle whilst it warms..but is just seems a bit pointless to me...we tried it again when my daughters bottles were over 4oz and it took forever to warm the bottle up. Its much quicker to warm it up in a jug of water or even the microwave as some parents do and I really wouldnt say this product did us any major favours, its not that theres anything wrong with it exactly its just ...theres no point to it and it takes to long!

If you really cant be bothered to get out of bed to warm a bottle of milk at night..i suppose you could keep the night time bottles in a bucket of cold water and the warmer by the bed but even then.... I think especially if your shopping on a budget for your baby this is one thing they can definatly do without!

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Why would you want to buy a bottle warmer when you could heat your bottles in a jug of hot water? Well, have you ever forgotten that the bottle was in the hot water and left it too long? I have! Then you have to put the bottle in cold water, you leave it too long again, you then have to put back into hot water! I've done this cycle many times in the past. I could never seem to get the temperature quite right and spent so long messing about trying to! With a bottle warmer, put a little water in it and you just set the temperature to the required heat, place the bottle in and when you need the bottle, it's ready! The warmer is white with a hole in the middle big enough for even the wide neck bottles. When you've turned it on (by plugging it in) a light will come on, once the water hits your required temperature the light will go out. This does not, however, mean that your bottle is ready. Once your bottle gets to the required heat the bottle warmer will maintain this until you are ready to use the bottle. There is also a dial on the warmer so you can choose how warm you want your bottles to be. You can also place a bowl on the top of the bottle warmer to heat foods. This is better than using the microwave as you can get 'hot-spots' in the microwave which can burn your baby's mouth. The dial for the temperature also turns up higher to heat the food as it really just relies on steam. Remember to turn it back down again afterwards, otherwise the bottles will be too hot! I was actually given mine but they cost about £10 new and I don't think that there is a lot of difference between the makes. The only disadvantage is that you need to be organised and put the bottle/food in quite a while before you actually need it. The bottles take about 15 minutes to heat and the food takes about 20 minutes. Now I've used my bottle warmer I'd never go back to hot water and a jug!